2/2

The Days of Our Lives
Even though I loved the storytelling by famed screenwriter Alex Garland (The Beach, 28 Days Later.) Enslaved felt a little unfocused. There was no real bad guy to pursue, just a vague presence of what to do, or who to follow. Without a villain to focus your progress on, Enslaved relationship between Monkey and Trip becomes the energizing force of the tale, which I mentioned before. Enslaved is very much a situational piece that might be better suited for the cinema then straight-up gaming. The growth between the characters is what will keep most gamers around, and not the premise to right the injustice that has taken place in the world. Depending on your need to slay the big villain, Enslaved might be a little anti-climatic by the time you reach the end, although Ninja Theory tries their hardest to give you that “big bang” ending. Sadly, it just doesn't add up.

Excellent Work, My Precocious
Adding more power 'Andy Serkis' co-directed the cut-scenes working with team to get the most out of the performances. Now if anyone knows mo-cap (motion capture) its Andy, or as most people know him Gollum from Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings films. With Andy's help and a outstanding attention to detail, Enslaved looks amazing when it comes to character detail. The two (well three) main characters are all stupendous. The enemies, well, they are too generic to exalt. The quality animations and acting is joined by some outstanding voice work also contributed by Andy as Monkey, who never overacts and humbly creates a realistic persona out of our lead hero. 'Lindsay Shaw' also deserves a nod for her feminine touch in handling Trip. Finally, we can't forget about the score by 'Nitin Sawhney' who also worked on Heavenly Sword. The musical selections fit perfectly with the world, helping to pull the whole project together. Point blank, the audio in Enslaved is fantastic.

Glitchy to the West
Lastly, Enslaved is a little glitchy. Not only do the controls sometimes take a few seconds to realize your button press (mainly when Monkey is climbing) the game has a few strange, unrepeatable glitches, and some frame-rate drops. The drop in the frame rate and miss-step buttons are a little more understandable then restarting plaguing bugs. More then once we had to restart a level to replay it because of strange glitch. What do I mean by strange? How about no enemies being shown when the level is apparently littered with them, no ammo spawning when it should, or what Trip not moving to a point to progress the game. These are more annoying then game breaking bugs thanks lots of quick-save spots and a level restart option in the menu system.

Ninja Theory masterfully crafts the tale of 'Enslaved: Odyssey to the West' to quickly grab the player in hopes they will fall in love with the strong relationship based narrative. The action, the wild set pieces, all fall into the secondary category as a story takes precedent over the action. Strange as it might sound for a videogame, this works to make Enslaved extremely engaging. The other parts, the combat, the exploration platforming, all play their parts, but it's not what Enslaved will be remembered for. So if you want a strong action game with some acrobatic platforming that is lead by an engaging story then Enslaved will carry you on it's back to the last mech falls.

		Outstanding animation and level of character detail Stunning world, a green post-apocalyptic landscape, say what! Interesting relationship between the two leads, in and out of combat Above par audio production, excellent voice work Brash, but fun combat A fresh alternative to other action adventure games
		Double team tactics become routine Enemies become awful stale (aside from some minor bosses) Not enough Trip on the battlefield Some strange level-restarting glitches Ending feels rushed More gameplay variety wouldn't have hurt

Similar Games: Heavenly Sword (9.0) | Uncharted 2: Among Theives (9.8)